Centre d'information des Nations Unies au Yaoundé

Menu

UNIC Yaounde commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2017

The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Yaounde is organizing an Educational Talk with students of some Secondary Schools in Yaounde on Friday 27 January 2017, to observe the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of Victims of the Holocaust.

This event will focus on the theme: “Holocaust Remembrance: Educating for a Better Future”. This theme underscores the universal dimension of Holocaust education as an appropriate platform for building respect for human rights, increasing tolerance and defending our common humanity. The Holocaust was a defining point in history and its lessons have much to teach about the danger of extremism and the prevention of genocide today. The Holocaust was a defining point in history and its lessons have much to teach about the danger of extremism and the prevention of genocide today.

A panel discussion by the United Nations and Embasy of Israel, screening of an educational documentary «The Path to Nazi Genocide“, « Le dernier vol de Petr Ginz » and an exhibition on “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda” will constitute highlights of the event, to hold at the UNIC Yaounde Conference Room.

The United Nations General Assembly, on 1st November 2005, adopted Resolution 60/7 designating 27th January as an Annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The date was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The purpose of the Holocaust Memorial Day is to remember and learn from the lessons of the past. The theme for Holocaust remembrance and education activities in 2017 is “Holocaust Remembrance: Educating for a Better Future”.

Approximately six million Jews who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators during the Second World War through a systematic and state-sponsored fashion.

The Holocaust commemoration is important today as it offers lessons of not only the atrocities committed during the First World War but also on the need for tolerance, co-existence, conflict prevention and the respect for human rights. As the world witnesses unprecedented killings of people resulting from armed conflict, students and youths can learn from these and say “never again”. There is need to guard against tribal differences and hate speech as they have the potential to cause conflict.

UNIC Yaounde intends to use this occasion to engage youth as future leaders, to learn to appreciate the need to defend our common humanity for a durable peace in the world.
For more information,